TXP (News - Alert) Corporation, an Original Design Manufacturer (ODM) for the telecommunications industry, has introduced the first of its standards-compliant RF return capable Optical Network Terminals (ONT).

 

This latest offering provides service providers a practical solution for delivering video and television services to residential customers over GPON while maintaining backward compatibility with existing set-top boxes (STB), according to TXP’s officials.

 

Joel Futterman, general manager of ONT Solutions Group at TXP, pointed out that backwards compatibility with existing set-top boxes is a major concern for telcos contemplating GPON deployments, which is why TXP closely followed all the relevant standards in the implementation of RF return.

 

He explained that this capability in optical network terminals opens the door for wide-ranging deployment of interactive video services over GPON without the need to replace thousands of existing set-top boxes.

 

TXP’s officials said that their RF return implementation is compliant with FSAN standards for three-wavelength GPON deployments, and also SCTE 55-1 and 55-2 standards that support STBs from the two major brands which are Motorola (News - Alert) and Scientific-Atlanta.

 

Along with interoperability with 16 OLT platforms, TXP is capable of working with any standards-based OLT. Officials said that this broad-ranging interoperability, coupled with RF return and all supported through a common software load, makes “TXP ONTs almost universally deployable.”

 

RF return enables telcos to install ONTs at the customer site and interoperate with existing coaxial cable wiring and set top boxes. In the current model, according to officials, the RF return channel is used as an upstream path for users to send data to the service provider, such as requesting pay-per-view broadcasts or other video on demand applications.

 

Officials said that the coaxial cable connects directly to the ONT, and the standard 1310 nm GPON wavelength is used for the upstream transmission of voice, data, and video RF return traffic.

 

Futterman said that there is no ratified standard involving a four-wavelength RF return solution over GPON, and under competitive pressure from cable operators, telcos simply don’t have the time to wait.

 

“The three-wavelength approach adds less cost to the ONT, requires less overall equipment per PON and does not limit PON reach like competing four-wavelength RFoG solutions, ” he added.

Anshu Shrivastava is a contributing editor for TMCnet. To see more of her articles, please visit her columnist page.